Needless to say, the early playoff exit to the hands of Pekka Rinne and the Nashville Predators was disappointing to Red Wings fans. Don't fret, there is some glimmer of redemption happening as we speak. The IIHF World Championship is currently taking place in Helsinki and Stockholm, and it features several Wings players.

As the rosters stand, there are 9 Wings players representing for their home nations on the ice. Jimmy Howard and Justin Abdelkader are on team USA; Franzen, Zetterberg, Ericsson, and Kronwall for Sweden; Datsyuk for Russia; Quincey for Canada; Filppula for Finland; and Tomas Tatar, from the Griffins, for Slovakia.

The preliminary round is in progress and continues until May 15. With Sweden and Russia being speculated as the favorites to come out on top, there is a great chance that someone on the Red Wings roster could be seeing some post season victory. What better way than to represent for your country?

The bragging rights may not be as cool as they are for the Stanley Cup, but it's good to know that Wings fans can catch their favorite players in action, even after being eliminated. IIHF is streaming all the games on YouTube, so in case you can't find it on tv, feel free to catch it there. TCL Red Wings will be providing some recaps throughout the week.